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Los Angeles Angels’ Albert Pujols celebrates a solo him run in the fourth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays during a baseball game Tuesday, June 2, 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. (Kevin Sullivan/The Orange County Register via AP)

Chris Archer on Tuesday pitched himself into the Tampa Bay Rays record books. Unfortunately for the Angels, it came at their expense.

Archer struck out a franchise-tying 15 and became the first Rays pitcher to have at least 12 strikeouts in back-to-back starts. Couple his performance with a three-run sixth inning off Angels southpaw C.J. Wilson that broke open a one-run game and the Rays defeated the Angels 6-1 before 28,771 at Angel Stadium.

The loss broke a five-game winning streak by the Angels (28-25), who fell five games behind first-place Houston in the AL West. Tampa Bay (27-26) began the night a game behind the Yankees in the AL East.

Archer (6-4) picked up the victory. He tossed eight innings and allowed just one run and six hits — one of them an eighth-inning double by Erick Aybar lost in the lights — and did not walk a batter. He lowed his ERA to 2.01.

The only run he gave up was a home run by Albert Pujols in the fourth inning that brought the Angels within 2-1. It was home run No. 534 in Pujols’ career, tying him with Jimmie Foxx for 17th-place all-time.

“He’s got great stuff,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Archer. “You know going into the game that he’s got a power arm with a really good slider and any looks we got at him, we missed some of the few mistakes he made. Albert didn’t miss one.”

Pujols was the only Angel not struck out by Archer, who rang up Mike Trout three times. Pujols also took Archer to the center-field wall with a runner on in the bottom of the eighth, but the ball was caught by Mikie Mahtook.

Left-handed hitter Kole Calhoun struck out twice against Archer, who mixed a mean fastball clocked at 97 mph with one of the game’s better sliders.

“He threw all his pitches for strikes,” Calhoun said. “That slider was obviously one of the better pitches in the league and threw it in tough spots. That guy always goes out and competes. He threw the ball well. We had some opportunities but he was on his game.”

“It’s really good, really good,” Iannetta said. “It’s definitely up there. There are a lot of guys who have good sliders, his is in the upper echelon of that.”

Archer said his fastball was why his slider was so good.

“It all stems from fastball command,” said Archer, who tied James Shields for the most strikeouts in a game by a Tampa Bay pitcher; Shields did it in 2012. “They take bad swings at the slider because you’re in the zone with the heater so much. And then when they’re thinking slider, you can go heater.

“So I just felt like my command of the fastball the past 10 days has been significantly better than before. And our defense has been great, so I’m not afraid to throw the ball over the plate.”

Wilson (3-4) took the loss. He gave up a two-run home run to Logan Forsythe in the first inning that went just inside the left-field foul pole. With L.A. trailing just 2-1 heading into the sixth, Wilson hit Brandon Guyer leading off and walked two to load the bases. The Rays capitalized with a two-run single to right by Jake Elmore and an RBI single by right by Asdrubal Cabrera for a 5-1 lead.

Right fielder Calhoun made a diving try of Elmore’s hit, but couldn’t come up with it.

“It hit right off the tip,” Calhoun said. “He just kind of flared that ball in there. If I had played in one more step, I catch that. But it’s a game of inches, man. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

Wilson pitched six innings and gave up five earned runs on four hits while striking out seven, walking three and hitting a batter.

“After that (home run by Forsythe), I was pretty much determined to not give up anything and then as the game wore on my stuff just started moving more and more and I didn’t really anticipate that well enough,” Wilson said. “So I just started missing and that’s really what happened right there (in the sixth).

“I had a lot of those guys in advantage counts and I just couldn’t finish them off.”